Ethiopia: A Tribal Experience

After breakfast, sightseeing in Addis with a drive up to Mount Entoto for a panoramic view. Descend down and drive to the National museum where you will have a chance to spot the oldest hominids of famous fossil of Lucy. Visit the Holy Trinity built during WWII. Then proceed to the Ethnographic museum which was the palace of last Emperor Haile Sellase until 1960. Finally a drive to Merkato, the biggest market in East Africa, established by the Italians around 1937.

Accommodation: Haile Grand Addis Ababa

Meal Plan: Breakfast

After breakfast, we will drive to Hawassa. On the way you have a chance to visit Abijatta-Shalla National Park. It contains 887 square kilometers including Abijatta and Shalla, two alkaline lakes. The habitat of Abijatta-Shalla National Park contains open grasslands, dry savannas, arid shrub lands and that were dominated by Acacia trees, which include umbrella thorn acacias, red acacias and gum acacias. You will see Grant’s gazelles, Common Warthogs, the park is also home to 300 species of birds that are listed as endemics, residents, and migratory. Common Ostriches and Somali Ostriches are mostly common for their breeding.

Accommodation: Haile resort Hawassa

Meal Plan: Breakfast

After breakfast, a visit to the local fish market and different kinds of bird watching at Amora Gedele. Post lunch drive to Dorze village. Dorze people are experts in weaving called Shammas. Weaving is a primary profession for a number of Dorze people. The shape of their house resembles Elephant, a reminder of the existence of these animals around the area many years ago. They are known for their traditional weaving of huts made out of local bamboo. Interestingly Enset or “fake banana” is the staple food for these peoples.

Accommodation: Haile Resort Arba Minch

Meal Plan: Breakfast

After breakfast you will take a boat cruise on Lake Chamo, the third biggest Lake in Ethiopia. On the Lake you may have a chance to see the Nile crocodiles, hippos and different types of birds. Visit and proceed southwards to visit one of the UNESCO sites in Ethiopia known for their terracing in order to protect against soil erosion from the sporadic and often heavy rainfall in the region. The villages are encircled by one to six concentric rings of stone walls, mainly consisting of basalt boulders. One of the best types of coffee for the country is also from this village.

Later drive to Hamer village. The Hamer are known for their unique custom of "bull jumping," which initiates a boy into manhood, practice of body adornment and wearing a multitude of colorful beads. The men of the tribe will often style their hair with clay, creating a sculpture of sorts that is styled with various pigments, mostly red and white, and in smoothing the clay they create a very small protruding tube in which they house ostrich feathers from their hunts.

Accommodation: Paradise Lodge Turmi

Meal Plan: Breakfast

Today you will drive to Murulle where you can find the Karo people. Karo People are famous for their splendid body decoration, in which they paint their bodies and faces with white chalk to prepare for a ceremony. The women scar their chest believing it makes them beautiful. The men’s scars represent an enemy or dangerous animal killed.

Visit and proceed to Nyangatom people, 17 km away from the Murulle area. To adore their long and lean bodies, the Nyangatom women wear numerous necklaces and long Skirts from goatskins that are richly decorated. Then back to turmi for lunch. After lunch you will drive to the Ari people, the largest population in the lower omo valley. The women wearing skirts from the banana-like tree, called Enset, are experts in pottery, blacksmith and distillation of traditional Liquor.

Accommodation: Nassa/Similar

Meal Plan: Breakfast

After breakfast, take a day excursion to Mago National Park to visit the Mursi village (70 km). We devote half a day to the study of Mursi culture. The Mursi women, like their Surma cousins, live on the other bank of the Omo River, are famous for their large round (and not only) lip plates worn by women.

There are several theories of the wearing of lip plates: disfiguring to prevent enslavement by Arabs in middle ages; protection against the penetration of evil spirits into the body through the mouth; determination of social status, showing the amount of cattle that the groom must pay as a dowry for the bride owning the plate.

Mursi are unsurpassed masters of scarification. The scars on their bodies symbolize social status and past merits. The scars are created by using a razor blade and camel thorn. To achieve a bulge, an ash or a fly larva is planted in the wound, which, among other things, eliminates all possible infections. Later you will drive to Konso.

Accommodation: Lewi Resort Sodo

Meal Plan: Breakfast

After breakfast, you will drive to Addis Ababa and on the way visit Tiya. Granted World Heritage Site recognition by UNESCO in 1972, the site lay undisturbed for centuries, until a number of the stone Stelae were uncovered at the turn of the last century. From there, fresh discoveries were made over the years, and now over 40 monuments have been unearthed, with countless more still hidden from view.

The largest and most representative collection of monoliths of this kind in Africa. Surprisingly little is known about these monuments other than their size and description. Small stone carvings made across the circumference of the tooth shaped stones detail the trials and tribulations of those buried underneath. Many are adorned with etchings showing barbaric battles, periods of famine and great hardship, alluding to the fate of those laid to rest beneath.

Later we drive to Addis Ababa in the Evening you will have a dinner at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant with traditional live music and meals.

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Dinner (At traditional Ethiopian Restaurant)